Postdoctoral Fellow Receives APS Award

Funding from this award will allow Dr. Zhang the opportunity to travel to Pittsburgh and present his poster abstract, titled “Sustained Activation of β2- and β3ARs Leads to Phosphorylation of Neuronal MAPKs and Activation of Glial Cells in Spinal Cord and DRG.” Co-authors of this project include director of The Nackley Lab, Dr. Andrea Nackley, and undergraduate researchers in the lab, Harrison Ballard and Julia Kozlowski. The APS acknowledges the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) for support of the Young Investigator Travel Award program.

As noted in the abstract, functional pain syndromes, such as fibromyalgia and temporomandibular disorder, are associated with enhanced catecholamine tone and decreased catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT; an enzyme that metabolizes catecholamines) activity. Consistent with clinical syndromes, The Nackley Lab has shown that sustained 14-day delivery of the COMT inhibitor OR486 in rodents results in pain at multiple body sites that persists for three weeks following OR486 cessation.

Results of this study suggest that treatments targeted towards βAR and MAPK signaling pathways may prove useful in the management of functional pain syndromes.

Duke Anesthesiology reflects the comprehensive effort of an exceptional team of anesthesia physicians, nurses, and staff to advance patient care within Duke University Medical Center and the field of medicine at large. Through excellence in physician leadership, research, education, and innovation, we improve perioperative outcomes and establish the very best in patient care.